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Batting for local business growth
In our regular series profiling the movers and shakers of the Leeds business scene, the Yorkshire Evening Post talks to Dr Jon Harris, chief executive of Partnership Investment Finance, which is backing business growth in the region.
Tell us about your formative years.
I found that being "sports mad" (cricket in summer and rugby in winter) had its advantages. Afternoons off lessons, in the summer, in the cricket nets the day before school matches and finishing class early for rugby matches during the winter. I don't think my education suffered as much as various parts of my body.
As I recall, I seemed to wander through school, just about "getting away with it" when exams came around. It didn't help my concentration living in Cheshire, because there were always so many pleasant distractions. Before we all became very conscious of "the environment", I found it was out there waiting to be discovered.
I loved being in the countryside and in those days it didn't require a train journey or bus ride to get to it. There were many fascinating places to explore that you could easily walk or cycle to.
When I did approach the end of my "actual" school career, the careers master advised me to read physics. I can't actually recall why he told me that (I think the clue was he was head of physics) but never one to refuse free advice, I went home and proudly informed my parents: "I'm off to university to read physics."
It was only later I understood the look of horror on their faces – I'd forgotten the small detail known in those days as "sitting your A-levels".
Despite all sceptical comments I launched my university career in Manchester. I set about mastering the art of basketball and squash and got myself involved in student politics.
Tell us about Partnership Investment Finance and how you came to the firm/organisation.
Partnership Investment Finance (PIF) is a private sector company that had 37m to invest. It was established in 2004 to enable small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMEs) across Yorkshire and The Humber to access financial support by way of equity investment or loan finance. PIF's cash resources are a mixture of private and public finance.
PIF aims to encourage entrepreneurs and economic regeneration, investing in the region's Objective 2 areas – including Leeds and Bradford city centres, Kirklees, Wakefield and large swathes of North Yorkshire and The Humber.
PIF's investment products have been carefully chosen to support a wide range of companies from small businesses requiring up to 15,000 through to significant companies employing up to 250 people with plans for further growth.
The fund is to be delivered through four sub funds: the Equity Fund which provides funds of between 100,000 and 1m; the Mezzanine Fund which invests between 100,000 and 250,000; Small Loans of between 15,000 and 100,000; and Micro Loans of up to 15,000.
Since PIF is a commercial fund, not a grant provider, the investment managers have to be convinced by the quality of the businesses in order for PIF to invest.
The fund will only consider commercially viable applications for businesses which are already trading, where the business has either exhausted other commercial funding or has been unable to raise all the funds it needs.
Firms receiving support will repay PIF through a mixture of fixed rate and variable interest, depending on the type of funding.
The planned life of PIF is ten years, with investments in firms being made during the first four years up to December 31, 2008. By the time its work is finished, PIF expects to have a surplus, a Legacy Fund, which will be available to continue supporting eligible businesses in the future.
Explain your business philosophy.
Time and experience are great teachers. I have watched and learnt from the management of the public sector and been unimpressed by (at times) the poor decision-making policies of Government.
For me, the most explicit example of how not to manage a national economy was in the transition of the national railways system (I remember when British Rail could hold me hostage up to ten times a week while commuting into London) from "public" to "private" ownership – never mind my own views, the costs paid, when measured in human lives, was the wrong currency – sufficient to say that I do favour a mixed economy with the responsible private sector being left alone, for the most part, to create wealth and the public sector assisting with the large infrastructure requirements of the economy.
If you weren't doing the job you are doing now, where might you be – or where might you like to have been?
Still opening the batting for the England cricket team or playing in the backs for the England Rugby Union team (not a great time for either at the moment!)
What do you feel are the major business issues which affect Leeds and the country in general?
Without question the nation's economy is responding to a set of world economic conditions that we can neither control nor sit in splendid isolation from.
The need to feed the growing "Tiger Economies" is something that should have been seen and planned for some time in advance. It should have come as no surprise that with two of the largest populations in the world (China and India) becoming less centrally controlled and opening their markets, their economies would expand rapidly and be an additional drain on scarce resources.
The UK has always been one of the leading nations in the world for innovation. To build, again, post the recessionary period that we are just entering into, the UK needs to look to new innovation in everything we do. Government needs to lighten its regulation (only required where the private sector has no incentive to be responsible) and provide incentives for those truly entrepreneurial organisations (including our precious resources in our world class universities) and individuals who should be the engine for the future modern UK economy.
If you had the power to tackle the issues listed above, how would you go about it?
Give more power to business and commerce to run the economy. I mean, they don't invite the top British executives into the House of Commons to tell them how to be rude, arrogant and generally perform in front of the TV cameras like spoilt brats. So how come they know better how to run the UK's business economy?
Looking at the finance sector in Leeds and Yorkshire, what do you feel are the challenges it faces currently and how will you be addressing them?
The major issue facing the finance sector is the lack of finance. There is no getting away from it – whoever you listen to, credit is in short supply.
Funds, such as Partnership Investment Finance, should be seen as a heaven in such times, as our decisions are based on the business proposition, rather than a simple risk assumption.
Who in the world most impresses you a) in business and b) in life generally?
Business: Bill Gates – how does he keep getting away with it? (You can't help but admire him!)
If you want a second place: David Beckham – how can a man generate so much wealth by kicking a bit of leather about – the Beckhams have created a fortune by creating a brand – and how many of the rest of us will generate that much wealth in our lifetime by kicking anything about?
Life in general: Difficult first choice – but I would say Mahatma Gandhi – because he changed so much and it is enduring.
Away from the office, where are we most likely to find you?
You won't!
You're hosting a dinner party and can invite one extra person from history – either living or dead. Who would you invite and why?
I'd like both – one dead and one alive – it would help with the after-dinner small talk.
Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second – what a wonderful life and she has remained completely untainted by the world's neverending ability to do stupid things.
I cannot imagine anything better than having the opportunity to hear the story of the past 80 years, as told by Her Majesty.
I have been fortunate to have met her, on more than one occasion, but each time I have been instructed to behave in the traditional manner. I'm seeing her again this week; I may just ask her for a cosy chat over a cup of tea.
The dead person? I did actually get to meet him before he died.
Denis Compton had been the guest after-lunch speaker and we both decided that whoever was running up several hundred runs against England during the afternoon was far less entertaining than sitting (and drinking copious amounts of the sponsor's wine) all afternoon while he took me through the journey of a schoolboy's imagination.
It was like entering a film of a period that you had only ever read about, transformed by a great storyteller – one of the most memorable experiences of my life.
If I hadn't have drunk so much, I would have been able to tell you more about it now – ah well, that's life.
MY CV
Dr Jon Harris
Age: 54.
Status: Married with extensive and extended family!
Schooling: Best answered by the statement my father used to say when I came home from college (in my early to mid 20s!): "Are you ever going to leave school, son?" BSc, PhD, MBA (enough said?)
Current: Chief executive and director of Partnership Investment Finance, from inception (summer 2004).
Previous: BP International (special products division); director with two global investment banks, financial director and head of operations, company secretary, compliance officer and pension fund trustee for a capital markets bank and director of its Swiss subsidiary; director of global clearing house, University Technology Transfer, non-executive of several companies (technology to entertainment).
Other products included working on the Czech Republic's accession into the EU.
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